252 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [May, 1910. 



semi-consonant seems to have been changed, but forms like 

 hujuyaned' are heard too (Mundari hijuyante). The suffix te 

 is in this form apparently weakened into ed' (neutral e and 

 semi-consonant d'). 



While the Mundari dental and labial semi-consonants in 



• m 



their character resemble to some degree those in Santali, the 

 case with the Mundari equivalent of Santali guttural and pala- 

 tal semi*consonants is rather different. The semi- consonants d' 

 and b' are pronounced by putting the dental and labial organs, 

 respectively, into position and closing at the Same time the 

 throat. Where Santali has guttural or palatal semi -consonants, 

 in Mundari only the throat is closed, the guttural and palatal or- 

 gans not being brought into activity. The sound thus produced 

 is a mere check on the preceding vowel, the same for Santali 

 eh' and k\ A Munda, who is a teacher at the Ranchi G.E.L. 

 Mission High English School, in a Mundari booklet published 

 by him in the Devanagri character, in an introductory note 

 describes this sound as follows: " It should be borne in mind 

 that in Mundari the Bisarg (:) denotes that a similar half- 

 sounded vowel is understood after the vowel which it follows, 

 as ' 4 ^ft:=^fx (x)" . Practically the sound is the same, as 

 the check after the first vowel in Kurukh ci'ina, he'ena, 

 ca'ana, ho'ona, hu'utang, but it is unquestionable that Mun- 

 dari herein has not been influenced by Kurukh. The pre- 

 ceding vowel is pronounced in the same pointed manner as in 

 Kurukh, but instead of pronouncing another sound after the 

 check, the throat is only opened and the air allowed to pass, 

 whereby a kind of u echo' 5 of the first vowel is produced, as 

 Father Hoffmann has called that aftersound very appropri- 

 ately (p. 3 of his grammar). The Mundari Grammarians all, 

 taking no notice of Santali phonetics, this being not within the 

 scope of their books, call this equivalent of Santali guttural 

 and palatal semi-consonants a vowel check, and rightly so from 

 a Mundari standpoint, for nothing of the kind of a consonant 

 is ever spoken or heard. In consequence thereof, they regard 

 g and j, the guttural and palatal soft consonants, which here 

 and there in certain grammatical forms reappear instead of the 



euphonical. But this reappearance of g or j, which 

 is confined to some localities, does not take place according to 

 the fixed rules of Santali Grammar. 



Many names of places in the Ranchi District, compounds 

 with da', are pronounced dag (Ichadag, Banadag, etc.) at least 

 by ail non-Mundas. The Mundari name Hardugan, of the 

 base du', is also to be noted here. Monosyllabic Mundari bases 

 and some dissyllabic bases too, ending in a' o' u' insert g before 



as 



ffix o\ e.g 



ma 



giu' , and alsotebaga* of teba\ I noticed these forms chiefly in 

 the Sonpur Pargana and in Porahat. Where no insertion of g 

 takes place, the check on the vowel remains, that on the 



